Amitabh Choudhury. Professional Resume

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			research thesis- the city within the city final design studio exchange semester urban design studio			Undergraduate







			Research thesis- the city within the city
						Undergraduate Research Thesis: The City within the City - Distinctions of urban form in the colonial city of Calcutta. The study identifies the distinct quarters that exist within colonial Calcutta, studies their morphology and urban pattern and evaluates their determinants and meaning. This study is divided into three sections. The first is a brief historical account of the city. The second reviews the components of urban form of the city in terms of its edge, districts, public places, landmarks and urban processes. The last, studies the distinctions of urban patterns within the city, analyses representative areas of study and evaluate their meanings/ determinants. The purpose of the study is an understanding of variations within the colonial and post-colonial city of Calcutta. This has broader implications in developing precinct based urban design guidelines and controls within a pluralistic urban framework.
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			final design studio
						Final Design Studio: Institute for Inter-religious Understanding, Ahmedabad The project brief called for a wide range of functions - a school of languages, theological centre and library, general library, hall of residence for scholars, charitable clinic, dispensary and relief centre, educational and vocational program spaces and a universal meditation hall. The nature of the project was a complex fusion of the sacred and secular, of dynamism and contemplation. Its location on the waterfront in between an existing mosque and temple posed a challenging situation. The architectural expression of this brief is expressed in a bipolar organisation and a series of linked courtyards that reflect the religious heterodoxy of India. The vocabulary of building makes discrete references to the examples of Indo-Islamic architecture such as Fatehpur Sikri as well the local vernacular of Gujarat.
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			Exchange semester
						Exchange Semester: Wolkenbügel über den Güterhallen, Konstruktion Semester, ETH 1993 Wolkenbügel über den Güterhallen translated means an abode in the clouds. It was essentially an idea realisation and construction-detailing studio - the concept was a horizontal skyscraper with minimal supports, which hovered twenty metres above the ground over the railway tracks and a defunct railway warehouse in Zurich. The imagery of this horizontal skyscraper stemmed from the nautical tradition of the Swiss Lakes. Structurally the deck was a post-tensioned reinforced concrete box section supported by cables. The superstructure was essentially of light steel construction with the use of timber softening the façade and adding a warm dimension to the steel and concrete horizontal skyscraper.

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			Urban design studio
						Urban Design Studio: Urban Place Making - Money, Power and the City. Design Issues: Understanding the workings of a microcosm of the city. Appropriate intervention and change which goes beyond immediate contextual and architectural responses into a rationale capable of sustaining and generating an urban order open to variation. The area of intervention was along a corridor of open land relieved by the proposed rerouting of railway tracks in western Ahmedabad. The design proposal was an antithesis to the type of street edge that was developing due to real estate pressures - one that denied the informal street life intrinsic to Indian urbanism. The proposal integrated both the informal sector of hawkers and pushcart sellers as well as established retail and commercial establishments.
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educational/ professional links: [CEPT]. [ ETH]. [ UNSW]. [ DRA]. [ DesignInc]

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